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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27341758">Ill-Starred</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stolen_Writer/pseuds/Stolen_Writer'>Stolen_Writer</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Exselch Week Prompts [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy XIV</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Exselch Week, M/M, Prompt Fic, Star-crossed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 00:35:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,302</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27341758</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stolen_Writer/pseuds/Stolen_Writer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In a lifetime, so far away, destined to yearn for each other, for an individual we don’t even know, who we would never know. In another, so close that we destroy whatever small bud of hope was bound to form. </p>
<p>Day #1 of Exselch Week! <br/>Prompt: Star-Crossed</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Solus zos Galvus | Emet-Selch &amp; G'raha Tia | Crystal Exarch, Solus zos Galvus | Emet-Selch/G'raha Tia | Crystal Exarch</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Exselch Week Prompts [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1996576</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Ill-Starred</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello everyone! I am so excited to share this! I took a little break from continuing Transgressing Monotony to participate in Exselch Week! I am very happy to do this and I hope you can all enjoy the little drabbles I will be sharing with all of you! Here is the first one for the prompt "Star-Crossed".</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Thwarted by bad luck, they say. Frustrated by the stars, they claimed. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>And they were all right. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>In a lifetime, so far away, destined to yearn for each other, for an individual we don’t even know, who we would never know. In another, so close that we destroy whatever small bud of hope was bound to form. </em>
</p>
<p>Gloved hands tracing pieces of crystal and skin, as disheveled as our dynamic now and forever. Of course, we were to meet again, under extraordinary circumstances. This time, the universe would require of one of us to time travel, in search of a star’s salvation, while the other would jump from destroyed star to yet another, in search of calamitous endings. Yes, we would coincide in the opposite side of a purpose: one promoting a tragic result, the other preventing it. Ever to clash, we are bound to opposition, never willing disposition, until nothing remains of us, until we are to repeat it again.</p>
<p><em>I wondered for a while, was it Zodiark’s will or Hydaelyn’s? Did they even have a say in the stars and their disastrous whims?</em> A sigh escaping, brushing red strands of hair, mocking the softness of the moment between woken and slumbering, ever opposites.</p>
<p>
  <em>Once, I traced this very skin, lovingly, melting away into nothingness. Once, I broke it in million pieces, hatefully, with no trace of remorse. Always, the result was to be the designated one. No matter the variations, the attempts or realization, we were separated, forced away. With quiet screams or uproarious whispers, our voices, our breaths slipped ever far from each other at the edge of the story. </em>
</p>
<p>“Indeed… Indeed, we are star-crossed.” The storytelling over, I concluded what sparked such thoughts. The repeated dreams of yearning for home and, in that home, yearning for the one. Not once did I think it was wrong, but that we were just unlucky. For how could a bittersweet love like that ever be wrong?</p>
<p>“That was… quite the story you wove there, Emet-Selch.” A hoarse, yet soft voice responded, as crimson eyes made their entrance, tracing back to the Ascian deep in thought, now quiet. “I know not of the purpose of these words, or what sparked them to rise, though I will confess that it has shaken me to my very core.” He gave a small scratch to one of his eyes, lifting himself from the millions of pillows that had permitted him a gentle slumber. He was alright, at the moment, as if nothing had happened before. In between a space that was unlike the ones handled by time. Certainly, it didn’t really possess a real space of its own, just two beings, somehow existing in a void, a gentle and so inviting void.</p>
<p>The Exarch was surprised that he was gazing over at the enemy and that he was doing it so fondly, for he was acting as anything but the enemy. Staring deep into honey-drenched eyes, through his own half-asleep lenses, he did really look like a long lost lover, one he knew not he possessed, not once, but too many times to count and just as many, he had lost him. And he would lose him again. It was painfully sweet, that even inside those eyes, he could see such a profound love, doomed to never find its home. That very same unsolved love stirred the Miqo’te’s soul, it threaten to destroy the shackles of strength and selflessness he had bound himself to. And, oh, did it crush his very heart all the same. Never had he noticed the hole within his spirit, not until the other exposed his feelings behind the veil. There was so much he had learned, yet so much he did not know about himself. Would that he could have more time, maybe in another lifetime, for in this one, he had renounced to his dreams to save something greater. But the glaring hole remained and it would stay… and he hated the fact of being exposed to it now, like this.</p>
<p>Red turned hopeful in response the evening glow that stared back. “Is there not a way to sway your heart on the right track? For that we can settle this, once all is over?” The boy asked, knowing that neither of the two knew if they’d make it out alive. Both of them were willing to give everything to their side, they would not waver. The Exarch knew this and, yet, he had to ask, if only to try and change the established fate.</p>
<p>Emet-Selch instead remained quiet. Firstly, he didn’t expect for the other to believe or even discover the truth he had revealed. Wasn’t he just a fragment, uncapable of seeing such a big picture as he had painted with small, detailed words? Would that he could share if even a little more of that world of theirs. But, alas, it could not happen. This piece, this shard, he was so fond of it, in so little time. Every small conversation sparking curiosity, every inconspicuous dream building a bond that was inexistent in the space they were to occupy, the play they participated in.</p>
<p>“Of course not. This will be settled once that one forges the decision, once the last battle is won and the world is restored.” Voice rising, he arched his eyebrows, as if pitying the other for even formulating the question and hoping for the best. Yet, this act was clear for the other as it was for Emet himself. He could act it but feeling it would be impossible. He leaned forward, one of the gloves being lifted off, exposing an empty hand.</p>
<p>“But don’t we revel in it? In the pursuit and the repeated attempts? Always, we always look for each other, in life or death. And that may truly be the bad luck we are subjected to. The star-crossed lovers doomed to never concur. But, when we finally do… Oh, may Zodiark protect the stars, for they could never bear the force of our relentless adoration.” He took a chance to caress the face of expectancy now drenched in the very same affection he had described, trickling it with the tip of his fingers, nails sliding softly. Taking in a brief moment of innocence, he was winning. Against fate, he won for once, for a single moment. And the Exarch took it in, his eyes closed and soon enough, he too was leaning forward.</p>
<p>It was but a touch, but a small proof of the love that had lasted far too long, never to be fulfilled. A lock of lips in a space unknown to the rules of the universe.</p>
<p>As quickly as it happened, it disappeared and the Miqo’te’s eyes opened to a soft smile fading to a blur and then black.</p>
<p>And back to the shinning lights of the Crystarium, to a pain he scarcely remembered how it had come to infect his body and to the suffering embers of a fabricated dying world, had the Exarch returned. There, he met the back of one he had confirmed as the love he had lost. It was time to put an end to it all, again.</p>
<p>Star-crossed they were. His side opposing his lover’s- no, his enemy’s this time, he called upon the ones to bring the story to an end.</p>
<p>They were all right.</p>
<p>Yet, certainly, as that moment in nothingness marked, they had parted ways by choice, crossing the very stars with their own hands. Letting fate win this one. One day, in one or many other universes, they would find a way to take those meddlesome stars and align them towards each other. They would be the gods to wield the fate, to thwart bad luck itself. For they were constants and infinitely they could try.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>And that is all for now! Thank you so much for reading, I hope you can all enjoy Exselch Week/Month as I am already doing so! Thanks to all who arranged this and to those of you who took the time to read and/or will participate. Have an amazing day!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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